WAS History – An autocritical review of progress (OV Spanish) - WAS 2015 Gold Medalist Lecture

In this Gold Medal lecture, I will review in a schematic way, the main achievements and mistakes, since the 1st World Congress of Sexology in Paris (1974), and the WAS foundation in Rome in the year 1978. WAS is an umbrella organization for Sexology, Sexual Health and Sex Education, with worldwide Societies participating not only in Congresses every two years, but also in several programs in its field of action.

We would think that the achievements are the: 1. Organization of Congress in the 5 Continents 2. Caracas Congress in Sexology 3. Declaration of Sexology as an independent field 4. Valencia Declaration on Human Sexual Rights 5. Recognition of leaders in the field through the WAS Gold Medal, the highest honor 6. Collaboration with WHO, PAHO, Ford Foundation as the reference of scientific knowledge 7. Millennium Declaration of Sexual Health 8. Sexual Health Day 9. Ethical standards for working in this very controversial action field 10. Series of expert meetings in Guatemala, Annecy, Geneva, Oaxaca, Madrid and New York 11. Participation of Past Presidents as a Committee to deal with controversial issues 12. Continuous revision of Statutes and by laws 13. Publication of proceedings of every congress during all these years.

In another point of view, the main mistakes in our history are: 1. The Congress in Mexico City in 1979, that concluded in the sanctions against its President 2. The resolution that changed the venue of 1997 WCS from Madrid to Valencia, due to evaluation of credentials of the original President 3. The congress in Washington DC, 1983, which finalized with economic bankruptcy 4. Lack of response from different societies to some of WCS, like Amsterdam, Montreal, Hong Kong, Sydney, which in turn summarizes some of our economic difficulties 5. Some people’s views that to be elected refers to travel and expenses and not responsibility 6. A poor budget with few contributions to fulfil our plans of action 7. WAS’ lack of efficient audit reports and accountability 8. Competition of Otero Institutions has not been dealt with properly 9. Lack of efficient professionals as congress organizers / PCOs 10. Poor Media Policy of action in order to review the so many false informations.